Project leverages the cooperation between the African Union and European Union to deliver improved energy infrastructures as part of the “Sustainable Energy for All” initiative.
09/22/2020 LA HULPE, BELGIUM TSX,NYSE:STN
The European Commission (EC) has selected Stantec to support the implementation, coordination and monitoring of the newly proposed Electricity Harmonization Regulatory Strategy and Action Plan. This effort is part of the umbrella Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) Initiative, which Stantec’s International Development Group in Belgium has been running since 2014.
The African energy market faces several challenges, such as low generation capacity and efficiency, high costs, unstable and unreliable energy supplies, and low access rates. As the demand for energy in communities across the continent continues to rise, concerted efforts are needed to establish the energy infrastructure necessary to meet this demand. This requires the congruence of policies, legislation, and regulatory and institutional frameworks at the regional and continental levels to improve coordination and cooperation, as well as remove barriers to facilitate cross-border trade and investments.
In this role, Stantec is working closely with the leading African Union (AU) continental and regional institutions to develop a continental generation & transmission master plan (CMP). Priority projects for sustainable energy generation and interconnections will be identified as part of the operationalization of the African Single Electricity Market (AfSEM), which prioritizes environmental sustainability. The power systems planning and modelling which are key to the development of the CMP, will guide decision-making on the location, size and timing of investments in generation and transmission assets to support intra- and inter-pool interconnections and trading. “Both CMP and AfSEM are strategic activities for the African Union and European Union with great social and economic impact to the African citizens,” adds Dimitris Papastefanakis, Team Leader of this Stantec-led AU–EU collaboration.
These actions are expected to go a long way towards establishing long-term stability for the African power sector and increasing cross-border trading and power pooling. This will extend the access to electricity for many underserved communities, as well as strengthen reliability in areas that already have access.
“We are now concluding the first phase of development for the master plan, which includes a baseline study to establish the supply-demand balance and identify the priority generation and transmission projects earmarked for development by the power pools for the short, medium, and long term, along with proposals for the modelling and planning studies,” remarks Alexandros Grivas, Energy Finance Expert at Stantec. “This is an exciting step towards leveling the socio-economic imbalance between communities in the region, and I look forward to working with our high caliber team of experts to carry this project forward.”
More information about the SE4ALL team of experts is available here.
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